Many mobile devices are adapted to permit users to view data associated with message attachments, in some form, on their mobile device. Some of these mobile devices are not equipped with native attachment viewers. In those cases, a message attachment is typically processed initially by a remote server. The remote server retrieves and potentially reformats attachment data, which is then transmitted to the mobile device. The data associated with the attachment that is received at the mobile device is in a form suitable for processing by applications residing on the mobile device, and rendered as needed.
For example, messages addressed to a user of a mobile device may arrive at a message server and may then be routed to a message management server. The message management server is typically configured to convert data associated with a message into a wireless device-friendly format before the message data is transmitted to the mobile device. However, in order to conserve bandwidth, the message management server may also be configured to not send message attachments to the mobile device.
Instead, the message management server may analyze the message and provide data to the mobile device that indicates the existence of one or more attachments to the message. Subsequently, the user of the mobile device may request a specific attachment. The request is sent to the message management server or an attachment server that is configured to process the message, retrieve the requested attachment, and send data associated with the attachment (e.g. text, images) to the mobile device, typically in a device-friendly format.